Here’s a closer look at the fees of exchange-traded funds

Article Excerpt

Fees charged by ETFs have several components: First are the operating expenses of the fund, such as the portfolio management fee, custody and administration fees, and marketing fees. These fees are all rolled into the Management Expenses Ratio (MER) and are paid directly from the ETF’s assets. The MER is calculated by dividing operating expenses by the assets of the ETF, and normally forms the biggest portion of all fund expenses. ETFs also incur trading costs when they buy or sell shares or other financial instruments. These costs could be low for funds that do not have a high level of trading, but could be over 0.25% for funds that use expensive derivative instruments or have a high level of regular trading. Note—this cost does not form part of the MER and is reported separately. ETFs also have costs that are paid directly by investors. Most investors will pay a fee to their broker to buy or sell their ETF units on stock…